[Adam Prime]

The only RPGs that come to mind when voice acting I remotely enjoyed was Persona 3 and 4.

... did Trails in the Sky have voice acting? shit, I don't even remember but I did like that game too.

[cosmicblizzard]

The only RPGs that come to mind when voice acting I remotely enjoyed was Persona 3 and 4. ... did Trails in the Sky have voice acting? shit, I don't even remember but I did like that game too.

It did in battle. Can't remember if they ever spoke outside of it.

[Fudgepuppy]

I think the Zelda games evoke a lot more with colourful and nicely animated characters that just grunts compared to many games with stock animations and VO.

It just feels more natural of a character to say the same thing over and over again if it's done in text.

[kswiston]

I would much rather have the cutscenes in a JRPG voiced rather than text only, but party banter needs to be toned down.

[Fimbulvetr]

Nay, for presentation reasons. I feel like it's a sloppy way of showing dialogue and it's uncreative when you can show motions for characters making scenes and conversations more interesting.

What makes you think a game with textboxes can’t have dynamic cutscenes or character models that emote and animate properly?

Hell, Vagrant Story had better scene direction that most early PS2 games.

Trainwrecks like FFXIII or Star Ocean VI are just embarrassing to witness though (let alone play) and really showcase the worst of genre in terms of VA.

FFXIII wasn’t really a showcase of the worst VA for JRPGs, but rather some pretty horrid script writing.

Even the best actors can’t save the worst dialogue(unless it’s so-bad-it’s-good dialogue).

[Rpgmonkey]

I wouldn't not play it, but if they're not going to pull any punches with the rest of the game's presentation, I'd prefer that it have voice acting.

[SHAZOOM]

Doesn't apply to JRPGs, but I don't need a paragraph of Dialogue in my sidescrolling Platform games whenever I want to buy something.

Example:

Megaman Zero 2

Select Area to go to

Operator:

"Beginning Transport"
press A
"Transport Begun"
press A
"3..2...1..."
Press A

EVERY. DAMN. TIME. Its like 4-5 more button presses than necessary to just go to another part of the game world.

On topic, I prefer that games try to tell emotions more through subtle body language. Its like watching a Buster Keaton/Chaplin style film, where you can get the mood just from a head nod or shoulder slumping. Its more universal.

[Rollo Larson]

It did in battle. Can't remember if they ever spoke outside of it.

nope...none outside of battle

[carfo]

Was just wondering how most of the demographic would react to such a game. I'm talking, full-on HD, top-tier graphics, high-budget, but dialogue boxes with gorgeous hand-drawn portraits (with multiple expressions) and absolutely zero voices. FMVs/Cut-scenes can have text too. I'd personally be up for it. I have nothing against voice-acting (when it's good), but something about dialogue boxes that just let you imagine what characters sound like, play at your own pace, set the controller down, enjoy the music, character portraits, and graphics cannot be replicated with other methods.

I like reading text but voice acting is good if done right.

[SatelliteOfLove]

What makes you think a game with textboxes can’t have dynamic cutscenes or character models that emote and animate properly? Hell, Vagrant Story had better scene direction than almost all games now. FFXIII wasn’t really a showcase of the worst VA for JRPGs, but rather some pretty horrid script writing. Even the best actors can’t save the worst dialogue(unless it’s so-bad-it’s-good dialogue).

Fixed.

[Kyoufu]

I'm fine with either actually. It doesn't have to be one or the other.

[Dick Justice]

Star Ocean 4 would've been somewhat bearable without that fuck-awful voice acting. Both the English and Japanese tracks.

[Eusis]

Can i get wrpgs without voice acting, please? At least they can put all the dialogue options they want instead of being limited by that stuff.

Honestly, as mugh as I can be annoyed with it in a JRPG I feel there's more of an actual NEED for WRPGs to, if not dump voice, then at least depend on it much less than they are. It's one thing when everything that'd happen is set in stone, then it's a matter of whether the VA's good and/or if the writing is good to be voiced, and how much more concise it needs to be, and to be honest some RPGs really can stand to be more concise (GOLDEN SUN). For WRPGs we had a lot of choices in older titles along with some nice writing describing actions for at least Planescape Torment, so going with FULL VA fundamentally alters those games rather than being a flavorful addition like in, say, Disgaea or even Persona to an extent.

Nier, DQVIII and FFXII were all so elevated by good VA. So I can't agree

I think the bigger issue is always whether the writing translates well to being voiced, or if you'd rather deal with a hack job so long as a game is voiced. And honestly, I think it'd be just as stupid to completely disregard a game just because of VA as it is to disregard a game over not having it. But then I actually feel the bigger problem isn't necessarily VA or not, but whether it's FULLY voiced or not, and unless the game is small in scope it'd be a mistake to make full VA the minimum accepted.

Oh, yes, as for Zelda: to be honest, I might compromise and be fine with VA IF that meant guide characters would explain stuff to me without pausing gameplay to do so, not unless it were outright integral for something to be carefully explained. If the game is the same as before but with VA, then it can go fuck off, I half expect Nintendo would even be dumb enough to not allow me to skip dialogue unless the VA is finished.

Star Ocean 4 would've been somewhat bearable without that fuck-awful voice acting. Both the English and Japanese tracks.

Part of the problem is the actual "acting" by the characters, so even going silent the scene would be terrible to watch I suspect. On a similar note, I do think I'd want presentation on the level of Nocturne or Zelda at most for going VA-less, if it was treated like a silent movie or a muted move with subtitles that would truly be jarring (and throw out one of the key advantages of VA: pacing dialogue out as you desire and re-reading if needed.)

[R_thanatos]

Star Ocean 4 would've been somewhat bearable without that fuck-awful voice acting. Both the English and Japanese tracks.

part of the problem is that the average pacing and cutscene direction was already in place and the average english dub didn't help ...

Even with the much more bearable jap dub , the pacing flaws are totally obvious ... the real problem of SO4 was "pacing" ..heck they couldn't even pace their dongeons properly ..

SO4 had many problems but the voice acting only expanded existing problems

[Freshmaker]

Voice acting slows things to a crawl and doesn't add anything to the game. I'm fine with text boxes.

[Alfredo]

No, I like voice acting. Like, I know people are gonna hate this, but I couldn't really get into Nocturne because of the lack of voice acting.

And P3P's story scenes would've been even more boring without the voices, due to the lack of actual cutscenes.

I would like it for more games to have the option of turning off voices, just to appease those that aren't into them, though.

[Eusis]

I would like it for more games to have the option of turning off voices, just to appease those that aren't into them, though.

Here's what I suspect most people who say this don't get: it's not simply a matter of "I don't want to hear VA so I want to turn it off" (though when a game isn't awkward with VA off it should definitely be there) it's a fundamental design decision. Multiple choice games that have VA will more likely need to decrease choices depending on how much there is, while Knights of the Old Republic/Jade Empire and Dragon Age: Origins were good compromises the choices start REALLY slimming down once we have the main character voiced too as Mass Effect (particularly 2/3) and Dragon Age 2 showed. And hell, while I imagine for most JRPGs it's a good thing to force developers to be concise sometimes they really CAN keep things both verbose and interesting, or the silence works better for whatever reason (I think this could be the case for Nocturne.)

[dead souls]

Voice acting slows things to a crawl and doesn't add anything to the game. I'm fine with text boxes.

Exactly. I'm not particularly invested in any video game story, so I'd prefer to just have everything in readable form, since that is so much quicker than listening to voice acting.

[djtiesto]

Would absolutely love this - I much prefer dialogue boxes to voice acting.

[ULTROS!]

It really depends on the company's choice of voice actors. Atlus chooses great people. Square Enix is definitely a toss up but their translation is fantastic. Ignition is a lol.

Though can you imagine if your favorite old JRPGs like Xenogears was fully voiced? I can imagine it reaching Star Ocean 4 levels of cringeworthy.

[Izick]

Nay. I've been spoiled by voice acting, but I will admit that I'm not a huge JRPG fan to begin with though. I always want to try some of the classics, but I always get busy. I don't even know where I'd start though. FF 6 seems like it is usually lauded as one of the best of all time.

[shinkansen.3000]

It really depends on the company's choice of voice actors. Atlus chooses great people. Square Enix is definitely a toss up but their translation is fantastic. Ignition is a lol. Though can you imagine if your favorite old JRPGs like Xenogears was fully voiced? I can imagine it reaching Star Ocean 4 levels of cringeworthy.

Xenogears dubbed with the by-then standards would have been for sure terrible, just listen to the FMVs... good thing it wasn't fully voiced.
A Xenogears faithful remake with a dub done by modern standards however would be fantastic!

Nay. I've been spoiled by voice acting, but I will admit that I'm not a huge JRPG fan to begin with though. I always want to try some of the classics, but I always get busy. I don't even know where I'd start though. FF 6 seems like it is usually lauded as one of the best of all time.

FF6 is an excellent game to start with, that or Chrono Trigger.

[Izick]

Xenogears dubbed with the by-then standards would have been for sure terrible, just listen to the FMVs... good thing it wasn't fully voiced. A Xenogears faithful remake with a dub done by modern standards however would be fantastic! FF6 is an excellent game to start with, that or Chrono Trigger.

I was actually planning to play through those two and Earthbound sometime last Winter, but time became a factor. May due it now that I have more free time.